Sheldon Adelson

Sheldon Gray Adelson ranked #6 of the world's billionaires in 2007, with an estimated net worth in excess of $26.5 billion. In 2006, Adelson ranked #3 in the Forbes 400 richest Americans, with an estimated net worth in excess of $20.5 billion.

In the Newsmeat Hall of Fame of political contributors, between 1984 and June 2007, Adelson has contributed nearly a million dollars, $791,563 to Republican candidates, $165,069 to Democratic candidates, and $37,000 to special interests.

In the 2008 election cycle, Adelson has already contributed $28,500 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, $4,600 each to Nevada Republican candidates Rep. Jon Porter and Rep. Dean Heller; $4,600 to Virginia Repubican Rep. Eric Cantor; and $2,300 to North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx.

In 2006, shortly after the November elections, Adelson gave $1 million to Republican Newt Gingrich's 527 committee, American Solutions for Winning the Future, a group which Gingrich formed earlier that year.

Adelson is one of several prominent conservatives and board members of the Republican Jewish Coalition funding Freedom's Watch, a new White House front group which on August 22, 2007, began "a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to urge members of Congress who may be wavering in their support for the war in Iraq not to 'cut and run'."

Freedom Watch's ad buys target both Porter and Heller in Nevada&mdash;to the tune of $202,110.

As of July 2008, Adelson had reportedly spent at least $30 million on political activities in the 2008 election cycle.

A Boston native, Adelson is the CEO of Las Vegas Sands. On August 17, 2007, the Associated Press reported that William P. Weidner, President/COO/Director of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, a Las Vegas, Nevada, resort and casino and another Freedom's Watch supporter, said that Adelson, who "keeps a home in Massachusetts and pays taxes in the state," had been lobbying local officials "to legalize casino gambling" in Massachusetts.

Controversy
"He's the third richest person in the U.S., worth $20.5 billion, with a rags-to-riches story: the son of a Boston cabdriver, Adelson inaugurated the Comdex computer trade show, and then went into tourism, real estate, and casinos. He is CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., which operates the Venetian Casino Resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Adelson is a major contributor to Jewish and Israeli causes, and to the GOP. This series of ads isn't his only propagandistic foray: the Vegas casino king has also gone into the newspaper business – in Israel. Yisrael Hayom is a new daily paper closely tied to the ultra-nationalist wing of the Likud party, and Benjamin Netanyahu's political aspirations. It was recently launched with a massive free mailing to hundreds of thousands, and has attracted considerable attention," Justin Raimondo wrote August 24, 2007, at Antiwar.com.

Profiles
According to Adelson's 2007 Forbes profile, he is the "Son of a Boston cabdriver borrowed $200 from his uncle to sell newspapers at age 12. Made first fortune in trade shows. Created computer industry's premier show, Comdex, mid-1980s; ran 70% profit margin renting space for 15 cents a square foot and leasing it to exhibitors for up to $40 a square foot. Sold show to Japan's Softbank for $862 million in 1995. Then Las Vegas: bought old Sands casino for $128 million, demolished it to build the $1.5 billion all-suites Venetian casino resort and the 1.2-million-square foot Sands Convention Center. Changed the way Vegas does business by enticing conventioneers to Sin City midweek, taking emphasis off gambling. Sold suites for $250 a night, added high-end retailers, celebrity-chef restaurants. Old guard mocked him: 'I loved being the outsider. I didn't care what those guys said.' Took Las Vegas Sands public December 2004. Building $1.8 billion Palazzo resort adjacent to arch-rival Steve Wynn's Wynn Las Vegas. Big bet on Asia: opened $265 million Sands Macau casino May 2004, recouped entire investment in one year. Ramping up construction on Cotai Strip: $6 billion project will place 7 hotel-casinos on Macau's 2 islands, Taipa and Coloane. Cornerstone of project will be $1.8 billion Venetian Macau. Last May won coveted Singapore gaming license. Plans to build $3.5 billion Marina Bay Sands on 51-acre site with a view of the city's skyline."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Las Vegas Sands
 * pro-war lobby
 * war in Iran
 * war in Iraq

External articles

 * Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, "Spotlight: Sheldon Adelson. A 'visionary' keeps thinking big," International Herald Tribune, March 16, 2007.
 * Mike Allen, "Pro-Bush group spends $15M defending war," The Politico (posted by Free Republic), August 22, 2007.
 * Paul Kiel, "NJ: Big Money for Pro-War Group Comes from Casino Mogul," TPMmuckraker, September 12, 2007.
 * David McKee, "And now a word from our sponsor ... Sheldon Adelson helps sell the continuation of the War in Iraq," Las Vegas City Life, September 13, 2007.
 * J. Patrick Coolican, "Sheldon Adelson: Powerful in Vegas, hawkish toward Iran," Las Vegas Sun, October 7, 2007.
 * "Bush,Cheney, Sheldon Adelson, and Deja Vu All Over Again: Priming a War with Iran," Desert Beacon Blogspot, October 7, 2007.
 * Jim Lobe, "Likudnik Hawks Work to Undermine Annapolis," Inter Press Service (Antiwar.com), November 22, 2007.
 * Peter Stone, "Betting on Red: Conservatives are counting on casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, the right's answer to George Soros -- only richer," Mother Jones, January/February 2008 Issue.
 * Thomas B. Edsall, "Sheldon Adelson: GOP's Answer To George Soros?" Huffington Post, July 25, 2008.
 * "Las Vegas Sands Plunges on Default, Bankruptcy Risk (Update4)", Bloomberg, November 6, 2008.

External resources

 * Sheldon Adelson NeoCon Europe.
 * Biography: Sheldon Adelson, Jewish Virtual Library.
 * Sheldon Adelson in the Wikipedia.